The Timeline

4.

March 11th, 2013:

On second thought, Claire should've seen what her brother had told her coming.

On third thought, Claire should've expected what happened that same night, when her brother decided to announce to their parents what had happened in the kitchen. She had been hoping that he would've kept it to himself, since she had just rolled her eyes at him, earlier, and walked back to her room. She was hoping that he would've deemed it a little jokey joke moment with his sister. But Steven wasn't like that: he liked to make Claire's life hell whenever he could (something about jealousy, because she had taken attention away from him when she was born), and so, that night, over dinner, as they were all eating something that Philip and Jane had gotten from Marks&Spencer (because Claire's mother had suddenly lost all the will to cook), quietly, because the atmosphere in the house was still quite tender, Steven had immediately perked up.

Claire had seen him, and had started to shake her head discreetly, trying to convince him to shut up, because she knew what he was planning to do. That had made no difference.

Steven had blurted out:

"Claire says Harry Styles invited her over for one of his upcoming concerts with One Direction!"

The silence at the table had grown even louder. Philip and Jane were no connoisseurs of pop culture and the current music scene, but to not know One Direction - and especially Harry Styles - would've meant to live under a rock and have no awarness of the country around you. Both of them knew who Harry Styles was. Both of them were now staring at Claire with thin lines as mouths and narrow slits as eyes. Both of them were expecting her to explain her little comment.

Had it been a normal family, with a normal history, Claire would've just joked around saying that her and her friends had bought tickets to a show. But that was no normal family with no normal history, so Claire truly needed to explain herself.

Except that, she didn't find it in her heart to open up about her friendship? with Harry Styles. Not yet. It was something that was just hers in a world were everyone demanded always so much from her. It would've been nice to keep the thing to herself. But she should've known better. She glared at Steven before looking back at her parents.

"It was just a joke." - she said, shrugging, deciding that she would've postponed the moment where she would've told her parents.

Over dinner, while the atmosphere was still tense and heavy with unspoken words, it would've just been a terrible idea. It would've made things worse, because then Claire would've had to explain how she had become friends with Harry Styles, and maybe she did not want to recount those things out loud. She had a feeling that the whole ordeal would've made her appear even worse at her parents' - especially her father's - eyes.

"Claire, you shouldn't joke about that, considering your history." - Jane said, lowering her fork and staring at Claire intently.

It took Claire everything she had to keep herself from rolling her eyes at the comment. She bit her tongue hard, because she knew that she would've easily talked back to her mother.

"I know. It was just a silly little joke." - Claire answered, keeping her voice as calm as possible, tossing the food inside of her plate around.

"There's no such thing as a silly little joke." - Philip answered. - "It just goes to show that you're as immature as I thought you are."

Claire didn't know what, exactly, triggered her next response. Maybe it was the expression on her father's face: the barely concealed contempt, the way his brows were furrowed on his forehead,  the way his mouth was pursed, the way even his nose looked like it was judging her. Or maybe it was his voice: the tone he reserved for the people he didn't respect, the tone he used when he reproached someone at work, the words he would only say to one of his most disappointing employees. Or maybe it hadn't been any of that. Maybe it simply had been what he had said. Claire couldn't stand that.